Pleasing Fungus Beetles from the family Erotylidae Latreille, 1802 are generally brightly coloured and hairless. Their antennae are clubbed, and tarsi (final leg segment) always 5-jointed. Although they are said to feed on fungus, I rarely see them in the vicinity of any fruiting fungi. Etymology The scientific family name Erotylidae was based on the […] The post Erotylidae Checklist: Pleasing Fungus Beetles first appeared on Macro Photography by Nicky Bay ..read more

2024 has been a very special year. For many of us, going to another country for macro photography is a huge endeavor which involves a myriad of work and family logistics planning while we are away. More importantly, it involves the approval and support of our partners to undertake all household maintenance and child-caring tasks […] The post Macro Highlights – The Best of 2024 first appeared on Macro Photography by Nicky Bay ..read more

The Borneo Jungle Girl Camp or Trus Madi Entomology Camp sits deep in the lush forests of Gunung Trusmadi, Sabah — the northern-most state of Malaysian Borneo. It is a Class 1 Fully Protected Forestry Reserve on Mount Trusmadi, the second highest mountain in Malaysia, standing at 2642 meters (8668 feet) tall. At Borneo Jungle […] The post Moths of Borneo: Gunung Trusmadi first appeared on Macro Photography by Nicky Bay ..read more

Lynx spiders of the family Oxyopidae got their name from their hunting behaviour, akin to that of the Lynx cats. They are adept at chasing after their prey from leaf to leaf and some are capable of leaping to catch their prey in flight. The taxonomy of the genera in Oxyopidae is unfortunately not very […] The post Lynx Spiders: Oxyopidae Checklist first appeared on Macro Photography by Nicky Bay ..read more

2023 went by in a flash, but not without a bang. I managed to document lots of amazing lifers and did field trips in Borneo and Thailand as well. I’ve finally launched Isopod Site which started as a photo compilation of terrestrial isopods and slowly adding in information on taxonomy and biology of isopods. Towards […] The post Macro Highlights – The Best of 2023 first appeared on Macro Photography by Nicky Bay. The post Macro Highlights – The Best of 2023 has just been published on www.nickybay.com ..read more

The new Laowa Aurogon FF 10-50X NA0.5 Supermicro APO is a beast that produces great images at a fraction of the cost of high end microscope objectives. While the end results may look mind-blowing to those new to microscopy, many are still clueless to how they can start using the entire Laowa Aurogon set effectively. […] The post A Photographer’s Guide to Laowa Aurogon FF 10-50X NA0.5 Supermicro APO first appeared on Macro Photography by Nicky Bay. The post A Photographer’s Guide to Laowa Aurogon FF 10-50X NA0.5 Supermicro APO has just been published on www.nickybay.com ..read more

Ladybirds from the family Coccinellidae Latreille, 1807 are also commonly known as Ladybugs in North America, but are actually not true bugs but beetles. That is why some prefer to use the name ladybird beetles rather than ladybugs to avoid any confusion caused by the misnomer. Ladybirds are one of the few insects that are […] The post Coccinellidae Checklist: Ladybird Beetles first appeared on Macro Photography by Nicky Bay. The post Coccinellidae Checklist: Ladybird Beetles has just been published on www.nickybay.com ..read more

Pillbugs, sowbugs, roly-polies and woodlice, collectively referred to as isopods, are land-dwelling crustaceans that feed mainly on decaying organic matter, especially rotting wood and leaves. Pillbugs can roll into a tight ball or a pill — an ability called conglobation. Sowbugs, on the other hand, cannot conglobate and would have a pair of tail-like appendages […] The post Pillbugs & Sowbugs: Isopoda Checklist has just been published on www.nickybay.com ..read more

Arachnids from the order Opiliones are commonly called harvestmen, harvest spiders, shepherd spiders, or daddy-long-legs (not to be confused with Pholcidae). In Latin, opilio refers to “shepherd”. In England, they were called harvestmen because of a superstitious belief that there will be a bad harvest that year if one was killed. Harvestmen are sometimes mistaken […] The post Harvestmen: Opiliones Checklist has just been published on www.nickybay.com ..read more

In 2022, I spent a little more time exploring the urban microfauna. I was also an instructor at BugShot Ecuador 2022 and had lots of lifers from the Amazon and cloud forests. I also resumed some workshops in the field, while most of my lectures were still conducted online. All in all, I found myself […] The post Macro Highlights – The Best of 2022 has just been published on www.nickybay.com ..read more